Will Holst was nominated for and won two Emmy awards at a regional ceremony held in Glendale, Ariz., on Saturday.

Will Holst earned Emmy awards for videos about the Arizona Historical Society Museum and the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope Mirror.

The University of Arizona’s University Communications office took two Emmy awards during the Rocky Mountain regional ceremony held Saturday.

Will Holst, video communications manager, was awarded Emmys for two videos – “The Arizona Historical Society Museum” in the new media category for a documentary, historical or cultural film, and “Revolutionary LSST Project Rooted at the UA” in the category of new media, news programming.

“I don‘t ever go into anything expecting, and I had never entered those two before,” Holst said. “It was unexpected, not because of the work or the effort, but because of the fact that we have not been doing video long.”

The University Communications office began producing videos about the UA and its affiliates when Holst was hired in September 2007.

KUAT TV Channel 6, which is part of the UA‘s independent media organization, Arizona Public Media, received nine nominations.

The Rocky Mountain Southwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, which provided the awards, received about 900 entries this year for 91 categories.

Holst, a 2004 UA graduate, worked for KUAT for more than three years. At the UA, Holst produces videos for UANews.org and a number of other University Web sites. A producer of narrative-style videos, Holst said he attempts to always treat his projects as stories, not merely as news content.

“I was interested in seeing how the stories would translate visually," Holst said of the videos that won awards. He added that attending the Emmys, which was held in Glendale, Ariz., and winning the awards have proven to be positive reinforcement.

“I thought it was interesting to see what the professionals in the field thought about the stories,” he said.

“With the LSST video, it was a new feature because they were casting a new telescope,” Holst said. “And with the Arizona Historical Society, it was a whole world of information there and I found it fascinating and just wanted to talk about it.”